1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a holder that holds a plate-shaped device, such as a memory card or an IC card, and a connector device that includes the holder.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, there has been known a tray 920 for holding a module 930 as a holder, as shown in FIGS. 12, 13 and 14 (see U.S. Pat. No. 7,865,210 (FIGS. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, etc.)).
Note that FIGS. 12 to 18 correspond to FIGS. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10 in U.S. Pat. No. 7,865,210, respectively. However, reference numerals in the drawings are changed, and some of them are omitted.
As shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, the tray 920 comprises a body portion 922, an end 921 located at one end of the body portion 922, an end 923 located at the other end of the body portion 922, a module holder 924 for holding the module 930 therein, and a retaining element 926 for retaining the module 930 held in the module holder 924. The module holder 924 is formed in the body portion 922. A through hole 927 is formed in the module holder 924.
The tray 920 is inserted into a housing 918 of a personal electronic device 910 (see FIGS. 12, 15 and 16). A circuit board 911 is housed in the housing 918, and a connector 940 is mounted on the circuit board 911 (see FIGS. 15 to 18).
The housing 918 is formed with an opening 919 via which the tray 920 is inserted into the housing 918 (see FIGS. 12, 15 and 16).
As shown in FIGS. 15 to 18, when the tray 920 is completely inserted into the housing 918 through the opening 919, the end 921 of the tray 920 is received in the opening 919. At this time, a gap between an outer peripheral surface 921A of the end 921 of the tray 920 (see FIG. 15) and an inner peripheral surface 919A of the opening 919 of the housing 918 (see FIG. 15) is small (see FIGS. 16 to 18).
As shown in FIG. 16, when the tray 920 is completely inserted into the housing 918, the tray 920 is held in a manner sandwiched between a pair of tray retainers 946A and 946B. At this time, a head 949A disposed toward a free end of an arm 948A of one tray retainer 946A is caught in one groove 929A of the tray 920, and a head 949B disposed toward a free end of an arm 948B of the other tray retainer 946B is caught in the other groove 929B of the tray 920. Further, the end 923 of the tray 920 is in contact with a detection device 944.
As shown in FIG. 18, an electronic circuitry 932 of the module 930 in the module holder 924 is electrically connected to the circuit board 911 via a coupling circuitry 917.
However, for example, if the position of the connector 940 or the circuit board 911 in the housing 918 is displaced with respect to the opening 919 of the housing 918, when the tray 920 is inserted into the housing 918 through the opening 919, the position of the connector 940 or the circuit board 911 with respect to the tray 920 is displaced in a direction 939B of width of the tray 920 (a direction orthogonal to a direction 939 of inserting the tray 920 and a direction 939A of the thickness of the tray 920), which may impair contact reliability between the module 930 and the coupling circuitry 917, thereby making it impossible to secure excellent electrical connection between the module 930 and the circuit board 911.
To avoid this problem, it is only required to make the opening 919 of the housing 918 sufficiently larger than the body portion 922 or the end 923 of the tray 920 in the direction 939B of the width of the tray 920. This accommodates displacement of the connector 940 or the circuit board 911 within the housing 918 with respect to the opening 919 of the housing 918, whereby excellent electrical connection between the module 930 and the circuit board 911 is secured.
However, if the opening 919 of the housing 918 is made larger as described above, a large gap is generated between the outer peripheral surface 921A of the end 921 of the tray 920 (see FIG. 15) and the inner peripheral surface 919A of the opening 919 of the housing 918 (see FIG. 15), and dust may enter the housing 918 from outside through the gap.